Online video platforms alleviate summer television drought

With warm summer days comes the sun high in the sky, short shorts, flip flops, and a stark lack of television. But, with a constant surge toward online forms of video entertainment and opportunities for television catch-up, this summer television drought has become significantly less noticeable.

Anime enthusiast and Kuna High School seniorRebecca Kadel dreads the summer television droughtbut has found several ways to find more episodes and seasons to watch during the normal, seasonal slump in cable television.

“During the summer I usually rewatch my favorite series over again,” she said.

With the large amount of television available on online platforms at any point in time, Kadel is usually able to watch more online than she would be able to when keeping up with a show on cable.

“I normally watch multiple episodes from a series a day, but on cable there will sometimes only be one episode per week,” said Kadel.

Junior English literature major Andrea Batten uses summer to catch up on shows that she can’t fit into her schedule during the busy school year.

“I rely on Hulu and Netflix to get those,” she said.

Batten added, “I gave up on cable about a year ago and have relied only on Netflix and Hulu ever since.”

Beyond Netflix and Hulu, there are multiple free platforms through which budgeting students can stay caught up on their television.

“I am a bit of a nerd, so I really enjoy Crunchyroll for free anime,” Batten explained.

Both Batten and Kadel find that with so much television available on online platforms, it is hard to sense the usual lack of summertime television.

“If you’re caught up in a series, you still have to wait like everyone else,” said Kadel, who found that, eventually, one can run into a summertime slump if they watch copious amounts of television on multiple platforms.

“If there is a drought, I don’t even watch enough TV to notice,” Batten concluded.

Justin Kirkham is currently the Managing Editor at the Arbiter and has been pursuing journalism since high school. Having interned as a blogger for YouTuber Strawburry17 and having invested far too many hours in news and cultural writing, he aims to continue working within the realms of gaming/technology, environmental and social justice journalism. He is strangely attuned to pop culture and can name both of Taylor Swift's cats.